Towards a brighter Mexico

A Technology Roadmap for Optics and Photonics: In search of a location for the Mexican Photonics Cluster

On 9 November, The International Commission for Optics, the Academia Mexicana de Óptica – ICO Mexico Territorial Committee for Optics, the Red Iberoamericana de Óptica and ProMéxico presented, “Towards a Brighter Mexico: A Technology Roadmap for Optics and Photonics”, the first Mexican Photonics Initiative (MPI) roadmap for the optics and photonics sector development in Mexico; which is available for download at the ProMéxico website.

“Towards a Brighter Mexico” is intended to serve as a starting point to create a sustainable and competitive photonics ecosystem jointly coordinated by industry, academia and government. This roadmap focuses on four areas: energy, telecommunications and information technologies, health and medicine, and advanced manufacturing; and proposes a timeline for building strong capabilities in specific technologies like light-emitting diodes (LEDs), optical fibres, photovoltaic cells, lasers and detectors. It also includes several recommendations such as the establishment of the Mexican Photonics Cluster to host not only R&D laboratories and photonics related companies, but also cutting-edge scientific facilities like an ultra-high power laser, a photonics manufacturing institute and a certification centre for photonics products. Thus, Mexico joins other major economies in the world that have already recognized the importance of optics and photonics in the future development.